Catching up with skin-care oracle Dr. Patricia Wexler on beauty in this beastly recession, and Washington’s best and brightest faces. “We’ve had so many Republicans who have been over-surgerized, Michelle Obama really is going to be great.”

ETCETERIST: Season’s greetings! How are you? How’s the beauty business faring in this beastly recession?

PATRICIA WEXLER, M.D.: So far, people are still choosing what’s important to them. I am not finding that people aren’t coming to me. They’re coming. Because what they aren’t doing are the big scalpel procedures.

ETC: Why not?

PW: They’re afraid to spend that amount of money, and they’re afraid not to work for the period of time it will take them to recover.

ETC: But visits to The Face Doctor Extraordinaire for more they’ll do, because the cosmetic treatments are more affordable in terms of money and time?

PW: Not only that, they feel it is critical to keep up appearances right now.

ETC: Because the workplace is now more competitive than ever!

PW: Right. But if this economy continues for more than another year, then they really are going to have to make tough choices.

ETC: How are people behaving? Are they asking for discounts? Expecting discounts? I can see it, mid-injection, asking: “May I have a discount?”

PW: Actually, yes, that’s true. One patient, just as I was ready to start administering the treatment, asked if I could give her a discount.

ETC: Oh, my! What did you say?

PW: I explained that nothing is decreasing in price in my world — the facial fillers, the Botox; the malpractice-insurance costs aren’t coming down. And I told her, unfortunately, I could not oblige.

ETC: Any defectors leaving the flock to see if they can get their treatments wholesale someplace else?

PW: I am aware of one patient who went elsewhere and got a very inexpensive Botox treatment, but it didn’t work. So she went back, and paid again, and it didn’t work the second time either. “How come when I go to Dr. Wexler it works?” she asked, and they answered: “Then why did you make the switch?” She came back.

ETC: Let’s talk about the coming Obama presidency in Washington.

PW: Politically, I am very excited.

ETC: And superficially? What impact, in your opinion, will the Obama style have on beauty and cosmetic treatment trends?

PW: Michelle Obama is really going to be great. We’ve had so many Republicans who have been over-surgerized; we don’t have to say which ones — not Laura Bush, but Nancy [Reagan] and Elizabeth Dole. Actually, I think Liddy Dole looks better with her surgery!

ETC: Do Republicans have more plastic surgery than Democrats?

PW: A lot of Republicans, a lot of surgery. For the most part, Democrats have been much more understated with their surgery, usually because they don’t have as much money, barring Nancy Pelosi who, it appears, has had some good work.

ETC: Has Mrs. Obama, do you think, done anything at all?

PW: God no, nothing … and when I look at her, I don’t see the need for anything. She’s beautiful. She’s young. But, of course, in my practice, I have people much younger than Michelle Obama already doing things.

[Note from your Etceterist: Dr. Wexler’s popular line of skincare products is available at Bath and Body Works]